


I'll Do My Best

by Scotty1609



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bigotry & Prejudice, Dad Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Gen, GraySON more like GrayDAD, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, Kid Mar'i Grayson, Parenthood, Police Officer Dick Grayson, Protective Dick Grayson, Romani Character, Single Parent Dick Grayson, Single Parents, Uncle Tim Drake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 23:02:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15895920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scotty1609/pseuds/Scotty1609
Summary: When Mar'i comes home from school sobbing, Dick has to figure out how to console her... and maybe himself. "(Previously "Brigaki Djilia")





	I'll Do My Best

**Author's Note:**

> I was feeling some angst and fluff and kid!fics so this happened. I love Mar'i and she is a precious starshine.
> 
> I got the indented words from a relatively (un?maybe?)reliable Romani dictionary of 'terms of affection' that I googled, so forgive me if any of them are incorrect. To my knowledge, Romani is only a spoken language? (I think?) so getting translations is hard??
> 
> Warning: This is un-beta'd. 
> 
> TITLE means "Sorrow Songs" according to http://www2.arnes.si/~eusmith/Romany/glossary.html

Dick was attempting to put on his uniform when the soft padding of a child's footsteps landed just beyond his door. A wide smile crept over his lips as a tiny voice called out, “ _Dadro_?” as the door was jiggled open.

“Don't forget to knock!” Dick called out, and the door suddenly shut again. There came knocking at knee-height before a single beat passed and the door was flung open.

“ _Dadro?”_ the little girl's voice echoed through the room as she bumbled inside. Neon green eyes blinked up at her father from behind black lashes, little hands fumbling at her purple dress. She was wearing mismatched socks, and her lengthy hair was pulled haphazardly into a high ponytail, strands falling out to frame her face. “ _Dadro_ ,” the child echoed once more, shuffling her feet as she looked up at her father with some mish-mash of stubborn dismay.

“Mar'i,” Dick spoke, a little confused, “are you ready for school?”

“Don' wanna go, _Dadro_.”

“Mar'i?” Dick questioned, bewildered. “You _love_ school! Why don't you want to go?” He tucked in his dress shirt and pulled on his belt before crouching in front of the child. Her hands had moved from her dress to her bracelet- a tight silver cuff with green jewels that rivaled her bright eyes, a gift from her Uncle Tim and from Miss Zatanna upon entering kindergarten that past year. It was a sort of power-dampener and beauty charm. At five, Mar'i could hardly control her powers of strength and flight. They weren't sure yet how her half-alien physiology worked, but they at least knew that she was half Tamaranean. In his free-time, which was scarce nowadays, Dick got together with the Green Lanterns to discuss what they knew about the near-extinct race. Not to mention, when she did fly, her hair burned like purple flames. Her eyes had no white, were purely neon, and her skin was more orange than tan. She was beautiful in Dick's eyes- how could she not be- but her appearance was definitely something other than human. In order to join her peers at school, Mar'i needed a beauty charm to make her appearance a little closer to her human side.

Mar'i was, by far, _not_ a... conventional child. How she had come into the world made her close to her Uncle Connor, and by proxy Uncle Tim, and Connor was able to try and teach her to control her super-strength. But they still had quite a long way to go before the five-year-old was ready to go out without a helping hand... hence the power dampener.

“I don' _wanna_ ,” the girl whined out, stomping her foot on the ground.

Dick sighed, crouching in front of his daughter and turning her around so he could redo her ponytail. “Why don't you wanna go to school, _chikno_?”

Mar'i shrugged, still pouting, and squirmed under her father's tugging on her long locks. “Don' _wanna_.”

“I can't help you unless you give me a reason, _chikno_ ,” Dick tried to sound as consoling as possible. Nearly four years of this under his belt, and he still had no idea what he was doing most of the time. Then again, that was what Roy had said to expect and feel, so he at least wasn't _surprised_ about his inadequacy.

“Don' like it.”

“Why not? I thought you loved school?” Mar'i had only been declaring as much for the past eight or so months since she started school. Her bookish nature only reminded Dick how much Mar'i needed friends. Mar'i wasn't a bad kid, far from it, she was just... socially awkward. A naturally inquisitive child- much like her father had been at her age and beyond- Mar'i had a question or rebuke for every social dogma in existence, which at her age was certainly unpopular.

Mar'i was quiet at Dick's question, looking down at her little pink converse and sniffling. Dick sighed once more. It was always a knife to the heart when his daughter cried, no matter the cause. He'd do anything to see his little _chakano_ smile. “...Tell you what. If you go to school today, I might just take you out for ice-cream afterwards. Waddaya say?” _That's it, Grayson. Bribe your kid. Great parenting._

The little girl didn't jump at first, which was startling in of itself- there was no sweet that Mar'i Grayson liked more than Mad Mike's banana royale ice cream- but eventually caved. And just in time, too, because when Dick looked at the alarm clock on his bedside table, he noticed they were running a few minutes late.

“C'mon, _chikno_ , let's get going before I have to use my siren to get us there on time.”

 

…

 

After Mar'i unconventional coming into Dick's life, he had fought endlessly with Bruce on whether or not he needed to move back to Gotham. Bruce insisted that the young man couldn't be a single father, a cop, and a vigilante all full-time at the _same_ time, and despite Dick's stubborn determination, it became quite clear that Bruce- however much it pained Dick to say it- was right. So, Dick moved back across the river and got a job with the GCPD. He still patrolled Bludhaven at night, the hour-long drive cut down to minutes with the recent addition of a zeta tube near the dilapidated apartments he used to live in. Dick did _not_ agree, however, to move back in to the Manor. He and Bruce were getting along fine by then, but having put a few years of disagreements under their belts, Dick still needed the privacy from his father figure. So, Dick and Mar'i moved into a modest apartment on the South East side of Gotham, close to Bludhaven as could be without actually leaving her sister city.

All of it was a bit complicated, living in Gotham but being Bludhaven's hero, but it just added another layer of security to his secret identity in the end which- now that he had a daughter- was no little success. And besides, it helped when he was at work like today and couldn't pick Mar'i up from school. None of them wanted her riding a bus at her age, and Gotham Academy was close enough to Wayne Corp that Tim or Bruce could pick her up and drive her home on their way back from work.

Dick was sitting in his squad car, Officer Blake next to him and the two on lunch, when his cell phone began to ring. Dick hesitated only a moment before looking at the Caller ID. The name _**TIMBO**_ blared up at him. “That's weird...” A quick glance at the clock confirmed that it was about time for Tim to be picking Mar'i up from school, the little girl only doing half-days at her age. “Mind if I-”

“Go ahead,” Blake waved him off and gnawed on his burger.

“ _Dick, hey!”_

“Hey, Tim,” Dick drawled out, noting immediately how his younger brother's voice sounded strained. “What's up?”

“ _I know you're at work, but, well, I mean- I just can't get her to stop crying, Dick!”_

“Wh- Mar'i?” Dick tensed up, grip on his cell phone tightening. “Why? Is she okay? Is she hurt? Is she-”

“ _She isn't... hurt. Not physically, at least, but **something's** gotta be going on for her to keep crying like this. I even offered her candy and she just cried harder! Dick, you've gotta see her and-”_

“I'm at _work,_ Tim. I can't-”

“ _I know, I know, but you're on lunch, right? Look, I'm already on my way to the precinct with her so if you could meet us there..?”_

Dick sighed. Tim was a capable uncle, but he was a bit stunted in the whole 'dealing with children's vibrant emotions' department. Then again, whatever had been going on with Mar'i that morning must have been stemming out to make her so upset that day... Dick couldn't help but worry, just like he did everyday that Mar'i went off to school- a friendless alien in a world of pearls and tuxes.

“I'll meet you there,” Dick promised before hanging up. He looked to Blake and asked, “You catch that?”

Blake was licking grease off his fingers when he shrugged. “We're on lunch, right? S'long as I can eat I don't care where we do it.”

“ _Great_. Thanks for the compassion, Blake.”

“No problem, Gray-dad.”

 

…

 

The sounds of stifled cries were deafening when Dick entered the bullpen. Quick as a wink, he crossed over to his desk and crouched down where Tim was sitting with a sobbing Mar'i on his lap. Tim looked completely at a loss, and Dick was almost right there with him. He knew Mar'i didn't have many friends at school, but she had _never_ come home so distressed before.

“Hey, _chakano_ ,” Dick crooned, catching the little girl's attention. Her head snapped up from its place burrowed in Tim's neck and, upon seeing her father, her sobs renewed louder as she reached for his hold. “Oh, baby,” Dick whispered as he picked the girl up and began rocking back and forth. “ _Chakano_ , I can't help you unless you tell me what's wrong.” This only seemed to make the girl cry harder.

Most of Dick's coworkers looked distressed for the child, but a handful seemed annoyed at the noise. It was Montoya who strolled up and insisted Dick and Tim use her office. “Maybe fewer prying eyes will make the kid wanna talk.”

“Interrogation techniques on my kid, Montoya?” Dick teased.

“Don't tell me they've never worked before, Grayson.”

Mar'i's sobs were fading away to hiccups only about ten minutes later. Tim had escaped the office and come back with a carton of chocolate milk. “I know it's not your favorite,” he had told his niece, “but it's still good, right?” Mar'i sipped at the milk through a straw as she hiccuped, sitting on her father's lap as he stroked her bangs from her face.

“Wanna talk now, _chikno_?” Dick asked her gently, to which Mar'i only sniffled. A beat passed before she was reaching down for her Wonder Woman backpack and tugging out a messy sheet of paper with still-drying glitter glue on it. Wordlessly, the child thrust the sheet of paper at her father. Dick took the paper and looked at it for only a moment before his heart was icing over and dropping into his belly. “Oh, baby...” he crooned, tugging Mar'i tightly to his chest and handing the paper over to Tim. _I should have known. Dammit, I forgot myself, but I should have remembered... Dammit! Of_ _ **course**_ _she'd be upset about this. But why even...?_

Tim looked down at the paper, his eyebrows raising and his lips forming a small 'o' of recognition. “Um...” he stood from his seat, shuffling a bit, “I think I'll let you two to talk.”

The bright pink words _Happy Mother's Day_ glared at Dick as Tim set the paper on the chair he had just inhabited.

Once Tim left, the door clicking shut, Dick looked down to Mar'i. “Baby,” he began slowly, “I think I may understand why you're upset...” _I know I'm not the best, Mar'i, but I'm_ _ **trying**_ _. Hell, am I trying. And I know we don't know much about your mom, but... please,_ _ **chakano**_ _, try to understand that I love you enough for the both of us._ “You- you want a mom, and-”

“ _No_!” Mar'i exclaimed, choking out more sobs. “Don' wanna mommy! Want _dadro_! Mommies are _mean_!”

“Mommies are- Mar'i, what put that thought in your head?”

Mar'i rubbed at her chubby, tear-stained cheeks with one hand, the other wrapped around her father's tie in a vice grip. “The- the mommies at school. They... they said mean things about _dadro_.”

Dick's heart fell. “What- what kind of things, baby?”

“They- they said _dadro_ was a bad daddy cuz- cuz- cuz he's always workin', an' they said I needed a mommy to make me _civil_ an'- an'- an'-” Mar'i's words slurred as she went on to tell Dick the horrible things she had overheard after school in the pick-up line. Things like Dick wasn't a stable enough father, that a child needed two parents, that it was sad a little girl would have to grow up without a womanly influence in her life. All of it made Dick's blood boil. He wanted nothing more than to find those women who had hurt his baby girl and make sure they understood just what narrow-minded, bigoted, fragile-egoed _witches_ hey were.

But right now, he had more pressing matters.

“Hey, hey, _chakano_ ,” Dick brushed away Mar'i's tears. “You and I know that stuff isn't true.”

“Bu'- bu' they _said_ -”

“I know what they said, baby, but it isn't true, is it?”

“...No.”

“That's right,” Dick sighed in relief. He would never hold it against Mar'i if the girl wanted a mother- hell, he had his own days in childhood wishing Bruce was married so that he wouldn't get teased so endlessly at school- but it would be just another pang to the heartstrings if she said she was unhappy. God, Dick was doing his _damndest_ and those witches at the Academy couldn't even see it. They couldn't see how he stayed up at night to soothe his baby girl's nightmares of her birth, and they couldn't fathom how much it hurt him to leave her every night when he went on patrol. They didn't understand the _sacrifices_ he had made as a single parent, all because they were too close-minded to _look_ or to _ask_.

“Mar'i,” Dick began softly, “you know daddy loves you, right? To the stars and back! And you know why?”

“...Why?” Mar'i played along, a smile tugging at her lips.

“Because you're my little _chakano_ , my little star-shine on a dark night. You're my one and only, baby girl, and daddy loves you so, _so much_.” Dick was getting a bit damp-eye himself as he spoke, his throat closing up. “And nothing any mean ladies at school can say will change that, you know?”

“I know, _dadro_ ,” Mar'i reassured her father with a pat to his cheek. “I love you too, _dadro_.”

A few minutes passed where Dick asked Mar'i more questions about school- were her classmates saying the same things? Was her teacher? Had anyone been mean to her at recess because of her single-parented status? Once reassured that the answers were all 'no', Dick rose from his seat and set Mar'i on the floor.

“Okay, baby, daddy's gotta go back to work now.” Unfortunately his lunch was over. “But you remember what I said?”

“ _Dadro_ loves Mar'i!” Mar'i chirped happily. Her tears were long gone, but the stain of them resided on her cheeks and in Dick's heart.

“That's right, _chakano_ ,” Dick stroked her hair back. “Why don't we get you and Uncle Tim back home, mm'kay?”

“ _Dadro_ can come, too?”

Dick sighed. “No, baby, I still have to work. But I'll be home by dinner, okay?”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

“ _Pinkie promise_?” The little girl extended her pinkie, to which Dick laughed and wrapped his own much larger little finger around it.

“Pinkie promise, _chakano_.”

Dick leaned down and kissed Mar'i's temple before scooting her off towards Tim, who was decidedly _not_ listening at the door (Dick frowned pointedly at him for that). Tim jumped up and held his arms out just in time for Mar'i to leap into them. She started babbling on about Dick's promises of ice-cream earlier that morning, and Tim laughed before promising they would stop by on their way back to the Manor.

“Save me some!” Dick hollered after the two.

“Okie-dokie, _dadro_!”

As Dick watched his brother and daughter leave, he felt Montoya come up behind him.

“You're doing good work there, Grayson,” Montoya said, completely unaware of Dick and Mar'i's earlier conversation. “She's a good kid- gonna be a great woman.”

“Oh God,” Dick teased, “don't even let me _think_ about my _chakano_ being a _woman_ just yet, Montoya, I beg of you. I can't be that old yet.”

Montoya rolled her eyes, fighting back a smile. “I dunno. I thought I saw a few gray hairs there, _Gray_ son.”

“ _What_!?”

“Keep your pants on, hot-shot. I was kidding.” Montoya looked out to the glass doors to see Tim struggling to lock Mar'i into a car seat. “But seriously... good job. Not just anyone could be a single dad and a cop. Takes some hard work and some guts. Keep it up, Grayson.”

Dick, staring off at Tim's car pulling away, could only beam at the praise. “I'll do my best, Montoya. I'll do my best.”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I might expand this into a universe. Who knows. Maybe I'll tell this universe's Mar'i's origin story that I hinted to. If you all have any theories or any ideas, please let me know!!
> 
> P.S.- I'm a HUGE fan of Dick/Roy and the idea of making Mar'i and Lian step-sisters makes me SO happy, but I'd be willing to introduce other ships is anyone wants any. Or this can stay a gen fic. Either way.
> 
> Now I've gotta go get ready for work, so bye-bye! :D


End file.
